19 essential Google Chrome extensions for salespeople

Ten years after its launch, Chrome enjoys massive success as the most popular browser ever created. More than 60% of the world is using it. And the best part? There are tons of exceptionally useful salespeople Chrome extensions.

The release of Chrome’s first public version happened a decade ago, in September of 2008. It was before Obama’s presidential term — the first one (talk about feeling old).

Just like millions of other people around the globe, at LeadGibbon we constantly rely on Chrome to be our main provider of everything from in-depth guides on sales strategies, to a simple Monday morning cat GIF (the best way to start your day).

Here’s the thing though. I might not be using Chrome if it wasn’t for the extensions. These small tools, readily available via the Chrome Web Store, make my life tangibly better. They make me more productive, reduce stress and when the time comes, they even help me create a cat GIF of my own.

Chrome extensions help you tailor your browser to your specific needs. Today, we’re going to share some of our favorite picks with you.

Best Google Chrome extensions for Gmail

Look, I hate writing a follow-up message just as much as you do. Everything about it is hard. I need to remind myself to check on previous messages I’ve sent. Or write an additional email not knowing whether this time it’ll get opened. Simply put, it sucks.

But as we’ve said in our article on the topic, following up is absolutely essential if you want to close more deals.

And that’s precisely why I was so happy to discover FollowUp.cc. This extension makes the process of following up in Gmail as streamlined as you can imagine. Recurring reminders on when to follow-up? Check. Automatically sending follow-ups using predetermined templates? Check. Scheduling emails for sending later? Check.

Here’s the tool I like: Gmail. Here’s another one I also like: Trello. If only there was a way to combine them!

Guess what, Gmelius does exactly that. Its main feature is a Trello-like board that lets you turn your Gmail inbox into a fully operational Kanban board.

There’s something so simple and beautiful about it, that I started feeling like Google should have put that feature in Gmail by default. Besides, nothing compares to that feeling of success when you drag a task from ‘In progress’ board to ‘Done’.

RocketBolt was built specifically for easy email tracking. It notifies you when your emails are opened, and when your prospects click on the links you’ve included in your message.

I really like using RocketBolt, because it makes me feel more in control of my emails. All of the activity (who opened your messages and when) is available from a simple drop-down menu that the extension adds to the top of Gmail’s interface.

SalesHandy adds tons of features for Gmail, including read receipts for both emails and attachments, scheduling replies and support for templates.

Templates is the one feature that I feel like SalesHandy has really nailed down. Simply draft a message you want to use as your template, and save it as a template for later use with a single click of a button. After this you’ll be able to quickly choose a template you need when writing a new email.

The templates you create can be shared between your sales reps, and the extension itself can even generate a team performance report by the end of a specified period.

And now for something completely different. Did you ever feel like the one feature that Gmail lacks is… a fully-featured CRM?

Streak CRM is a really powerful extension that adds an ability to build your own sales pipeline inside Gmail. Basically, it lets you add and customize a spreadsheet right from within Gmail’s web-based interface that will help you divide your leads by the sales stage you’re on with them (‘contact’, ‘met with’, ‘scheduled a demo’, etc). Oh, and each category is fully customizable.

Streak CRM has a steep learning curve, and I still struggle to find the best way to integrate it into my own workflow. But I feel that it has the power to completely overhaul the way I use emails, and that’s not what most extensions tend to do.

Best Google Chrome extensions for writing emails

A couple of years ago I was working in a different company, doing outreach campaigns as part of a marketing team. I vividly remember the look on my colleague’s face when he received a very harsh reply to one of the messages he sent a couple of days prior. He was horrified.

The message read ‘Don’t send emails to me anymore. I don’t care about you, because I see that you don’t care about me’.

The reason? My colleague sent a message late in the night, and it was riddled with typos and mistakes. It was a personalized cold email, but the recipient got mad anyway, because he saw that we didn’t care enough to double check our emails. And he was right.

That’s why no lsit of Crhome extesnsions would be ctomplete withteout Grammarly. Because it’s the best way to stop yourself from writing sentences like that.

The idea behind the Crystal extension sounds like something out of science fiction. Basically, it analyzes the web presence of your leads to find out their personality type.

Some people don’t have the time or patience for casual discussion, while others prefer informal meetings. Crystal tips you on how to better approach a particular lead based on their personality type. When you’re writing an email, it suggests an approach for you to take and even highlights stop-words (specific for each type of personality) that you should probably change.

It won’t work for every lead out there (my first step was checking what Crystal says about my personality type, but sadly I don’t have enough web presence for it to check against), but when it works, it’s pretty damn impressive.

On the picture above, Crystal has described GetUplift’s stellar Talia Wolf as decisive, forward-thinking and spontaneous — which from my experience talking to her is completely on point!

FullContact seamlessly enhances the Gmail experience by adding a sidebar that automatically generates a profile of your contact: you can see their name, photo, website, links to social media profiles and more.

Like some other extensions on this list, Boomerang helps you schedule emails for automatically sending them later. But it’s second standout feature is more interesting.

Once you start writing a response, Boomerang ranks your email on several key criteria (like readability and word count) and makes suggestions on how to improve it. I’ve checked one of the emails I’ve sent and Boomerang told me that it’s pretty great, except that it’s way too hard to read. For the person who received it — I’m sorry!

Best Google Chrome extensions for working with new leads

Our very own LeadGibbon is a simple extension for Google Chrome that integrates prospecting in Sales Navigator with email verification for a more streamlined and productive workflow.

LeadGibbon works within the same tab as LinkedIn. The extension adds two buttons to Sales Navigator. One of them helps you quickly find and validate business emails of the prospects you’ve found on LinkedIn. The other opens up a sidebar, from which you can edit your prospect’s details, export their data to an automatically generated spreadsheet on Google Drive, or even send them an email right away.

The best compliment I can give LeadGibbon is that I continue to use it on a daily basis. It’s exporting feature is unparalleled, and it just makes my work so much easier.

Sometimes you need to find an email address, but it doesn’t happen so often that it warrants a purchase of a stand-alone paid solution? Try Name2Email.

It’s an ingenious little extension. Name2Email helps you figure out the right address by automatically populating the recipient field in Gmail with various combinations of your lead’s name and their business address.

You can then simply hover over each email address to see which one has the right photo — and hit send. Just make sure to delete all the other email addresses beforehand.

Datanyze Insider helps you better understand your prospects before you get in touch with them. It automatically pulls tons of useful data the moment you open the site of the company you’re planning to contact.

It can make you feel like James Bond — as if MI6 is sending you background information on your next target.

The extension helps you see the bigger picture: everything from the technology they’re using, to general information about the company’s size and years in business, to their employee count and Alexa traffic rank. If you want to make smarter sales decisions, this a good one to pay attention to.

Best Google Chrome extensions for personal productivity

The average human being is distracted once every 48 seconds. I’ve been distracted two times before finishing the previous sentence. If you want to be productive, it can become a bit of a problem.

And that’s why Strict Workflow is a godsend for salespeople who have trouble dedicating all of their attention to a single task.

You specify the amount of time you want to work on a single task (25 minutes is recommended), and how much time you want to spend on a break after completing it (5 minutes). Crucially, you can also add distracting websites (like Twitter or YouTube) to a blacklist.

During the 25 minutes period, Strict Workflow will block these websites and urge you to work. No way to check Twitter. No YouTube videos. And you can’t even turn off or pause Strict Workflow once the timer starts.

After the burst ends, it prompts you to take a break. Rinse and repeat for a more productive and fulfilling work day.

Pocket adds a button to Chrome’s toolbar that lets you quickly save an article for later. The extension is so simple and useful, that once you start using it it’s impossible to stop.

Anything you save is instantly available on Pocket’s website or mobile app. What’s even better, Pocket automatically strips down the articles you save to make them more readable. Plus, with built-in simple tagging, it’s easy to categorize articles you’ve found according to whatever criteria you come up with.

Found a great article you want to show your prospect? Save it to Pocket. Found a website you may want to contact later? Save it to Pocket. The only downside is that after five years of using Pocket, I’ve more or less accepted the idea that I’ll never be able to read all the stuff that I’ve saved.

Google Keep is the easiest and most streamlined note-taking app out there. It combines the simplicity of something like Apple Notes with features of more complicated apps like Evernote. It’s the best possible combination of the two, allowing for lightning-fast note-taking with images, voice recordings, and even drawings.

The app is perfect if you want to get organized. And this year it became even more useful, as Google has added a Google Keep sidebar to Gmail, Calendar and other G Suite apps like Docs and Sheets.

Google Keep is perfect for making quick notes on the go or during a meeting. It’s Chrome Extension is a ‘web clipper’, which allows you to quickly save any article, image or text form to the app.

Zoom is one of the easiest-to-use video conferencing apps out there. This extension helps you quickly schedule new Zoom meetings. It even adds a separate button for scheduling Zoom meetings right into your Google Calendar. If you plan on regularly talking to customers online, this one can really streamline your workflow.

When it comes to internet security, there are two main rules: use long passwords and don’t repeat them for different websites. Obviously, this makes it a bit hard to remember your passwords. That’s where password managers come in.

It’s important to start using some kind of password manager if you want to protect your accounts. Both LastPass and 1Password are great. In addition to storing all your passwords, these extensions will automatically generate strong new passphrases, store them for easy access both on your PC or phone, and notify you when they see a duplicate or a weak password.

The setting up process can be a bit annoying, but once you start using a password manager, it’s impossible to go back. What can be better than having to remember just one password?

Speaking of security, did you ever notice a ‘Not secure’ warning next to the URL in Chrome’s address bar? That means the traffic between your browser and the website is not protected by HTTPS.

In other words, it’s unencrypted. Which means it’s open season for bad actors.

When you visit an HTTP website, your ISP and other third parties are free to spy on you. Worse still, hackers can intercept your traffic to steal your bank details and other sensitive information. And as of 2018, the majority of the internet’s top 1 million sites are still in HTTP.

A VPN extension will come in handy to patch that security gap, making sure that even when the site itself is not secure, your traffic will still be sealed in an encryption tunnel. ExpressVPN helps you stay secure while you browse, no matter if you’re at home, or on a public WiFi network at the airport.

If social media is a part of your sales strategy, Buffer can save you a ton of time. By clicking the Buffer button you’ll be able to instantly share anything you’ve found on the internet to Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. You can also schedule new posts (to better tailor them to your prospect’s time zone), analyze the performance of your social content and more.

Buffer is a pleasure to use. Instead of manually copying links and opening a separate tab, you just hit one button — and share.

Get acquainted with Chrome app shortcuts

Did you know that Chrome lets you easily turn any website into a desktop app?

Simply click the ‘Create a shortcut’ button in the Chrome menu and the browser will add a shortcut to the page you specified. Then, tick the ‘Open as a window’ option from the Chrome Apps menu and add a shortcut to your desktop or taskbar.

The result is a web page that looks and works just as a desktop app, complete with a taskbar icon and its own window without the browser’s interface. It can be super helpful if you want to make a certain website (like Gmail, Google Calendar or LinkedIn) more accessible and separate them from your work in the browser.

What’s your favorite Chrome extension?

We hope that this list of Google Chrome extensions for salespeople will help you build a smarter and more productive workflow. But we also suspect that it probably doesn’t feature your favorite tools. There’s just so many of them!

Do you feel like we missed something important? Then share your favorite Chrome extensions with us in the comments section below!